“Everyone is watching with wide eyes, waiting to see when I leave the empress’s quarters.”
Enoch was well aware of the situation.
“If I leave the empress’s quarters early in the morning, there will be nothing more to say.”
“Yes.”
Alexa gave a nod.
In the original story, because Enoch had not stayed in the empress’s quarters during the imperial marriage rites, the original Alexa had not been respected as empress. It had also become the moment that led everyone in the palace to disregard Alexa’s very existence.
So Enoch intended to keep his word about respecting Alexa as his empress.
“I will say it again. I have no intention of holding you when you are frightened.”
Enoch’s voice always resonated low.
“So it will be uncomfortable, but I suppose we will have to try to sleep in the same bed.”
“Yes.”
Why had the original Enoch been so cold to Alexa? The Enoch before her now was so full of consideration and warmth that the original Enoch did not even come to mind.
“I believe the empress is expected to visit the Empress Dowager’s quarters every morning during the imperial marriage rites.”
“Yes, I went yesterday as well.”
“Did she not ask whether the wedding night had been consummated?”
Enoch knew his mother’s nature well.
“Yes…”
“What did you tell her?”
“That it had not yet taken place.”
“Tomorrow you can give the opposite answer.”
Enoch had said he would stay in the empress’s quarters until morning. Everyone except the two of them would have every reason to believe the marriage had been consummated.
“What passes between the two of us stays between the two of us.”
“Pardon?”
“Whether it is the Empress Dowager or the head maid or anyone else… no one needs to know what goes on in our bedchamber.”
“But I could not hide it from the head maid.”
The empress’s head maid managed every aspect of the empress’s life. She would naturally check the sheets for bloodstains the next morning.
“There is a way.”
Enoch drew a small knife from inside his jacket, and before Alexa could say a word, he drew it lightly across his own palm and let drops of blood fall onto the sheet.
“Your Majesty, you must not harm your body!”
“A scratch this small is more than worth it if it spares us something more troublesome.”
It was certainly easier going forward if everyone believed the wedding night had gone as it should. She felt sorry for deceiving Matilda, but involving her in the lie was worse than keeping her out of it.
“Then let us try to sleep.”
Enoch swung himself over to the other side of the bed. Then he looked at Alexa, who was sitting there motionless.
“Are you going to sit like that all night?”
“Oh, no…”
“I do not speak falsehoods. I promise I will not touch you again tonight.”
At those words, Alexa gave a nod and lay down, very awkwardly. Enoch lay down beside her.
In the process, the backs of their hands brushed against each other, and Alexa flinched without meaning to. The mere brush of skin felt hot against her.
‘There is no way I can fall asleep like this.’
Alexa thought, lying on her side and gripping the sheet. Enoch lay at ease, his breathing growing slow and steady.
‘Am I going to be awake all night…’
The worry crossed Alexa’s mind.
The kiss from a little while ago was still vivid, and sleep felt impossible. She could not forget the sensation of his hot, soft tongue tangled with hers, or the burning warmth of their wet lips pressed together.
“The candle on my side can be put out.”
“Oh, yes…”
By comparison, Enoch was far too composed. Infuriatingly so.
“Put out the one on your side yourself.”
Alexa blew out the candle on the nightstand beside her. Darkness fell over the room.
Alexa lay back on her side, squeezed her eyes shut, and hoped with everything she had that this night would pass as quickly as possible.
And then… how much time had gone by?
When Alexa opened her eyes again, she could tell that Enoch was no longer beside her. She had thought he too must have found this awkward night too much to bear and broken his promise.
“Your Majesty, are you awake?”
But Matilda’s bright voice rang out from beyond the bed curtain.
“Mm.”
“Then I will draw back the curtain.”
When Matilda drew back the curtain, sunlight was pouring through the windows.
‘Don’t tell me I actually slept that soundly?’
She had been so certain she would never fall asleep, and yet she had closed her eyes once and opened them to find it already morning. She could hardly believe it.
“Your Majesty, congratulations.”
Matilda saw the bloodstain on the sheet and paid her respects.
“Wh, what time is it?”
“Eleven o’clock in the morning.”
No wonder her body felt light and the exhaustion from the imperial marriage seemed to have lifted.
“His Majesty had affairs of state, so he left the empress’s quarters at eight o’clock and asked that Your Majesty not be disturbed.”
Matilda’s voice was full of joy.
And so the union of the two was declared complete. A union whose truth only the two of them knew.
* * *
Alexa rushed to get ready and arrived at the Empress Dowager’s quarters just barely in time. But despite being late, Empress Dowager Camilla’s expression was one of satisfaction.
“Coming at this hour, it seems the wedding night was consummated yesterday.”
Alexa’s cheeks flushed before she could stop them. Even between women, even as mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, she had no desire to discuss what happened in the bedchamber.
“Yes…”
But she had needed to convey this to the Empress Dowager at least once.
Sure enough, Camilla’s face was filled with contentment as she looked at Alexa.
“Well done. He is my son, but I worried he would be indifferent. It seems you managed somehow.”
“I am deeply honored.”
“All that remains now is for you to produce an heir. An heir who carries the blood of our Taira line.”
Camilla was quite something, speaking of an heir the moment Alexa had barely said the wedding night was consummated.
Enoch would have been reluctant about a bride from the Taira ducal house for reasons like this alone. Even if Alexa were Enoch, she would have had more than enough of a mother like this and the Taira ducal house.
“You are young and healthy. I pray good news comes soon.”
“I am deeply honored.”
Alexa felt a fresh wave of gratitude toward Enoch for staying in the empress’s quarters the night before. Without his consideration, this moment would have been unbearable.
On top of that, there were no secrets in the palace. Word would have spread without fail that the emperor wanted nothing to do with his new empress.
In the original story, Alexa had indeed been someone the entire palace disregarded. It was because she had never been able to show publicly that the marriage had been consummated.
Later on, there had even been a minister who argued that since the marriage had never been consummated, it should be declared void, using Alexa’s failure to produce an heir as the grounds.
“You must be tired. You may go.”
“Yes. I will take my leave.”
Alexa paid her respects and withdrew from Camilla’s presence.
Stepping out of the Empress Dowager’s quarters, the suffocatingly strong scent that had been making her head ache disappeared, and a cool wind blew in, fresh and welcome.
“Oh my, the wind is strong. Please close your coat.”
Alexa gave a nod at Matilda’s words.
“Even so, it feels wonderful.”
The fragrance in the Empress Dowager’s quarters had been so overpowering it had given her a headache and turned her stomach. Coming back out into the open air cleared her head entirely.
“You are a newlywed, so even a cold wind feels good to you.”
“It, it’s not like that.”
“There is nothing to be embarrassed about. That is what marriage is.”
At those words, Alexa thought of the night before.
If she had not trembled like that, would the two of them have truly consummated the marriage? The gap from the original story was so vast she could barely imagine it.
“Honestly, I worried about how things would go on the first night. I am so relieved.”
Watching Matilda’s relief made her conscience sting, but this was a secret between her and Enoch, so there was nothing to be done.
But as long as this secret existed, an heir would not be born the way everyone hoped.
In the end, the only thing different from the original story was that things between her and Enoch had improved. Everything else was the same.
“Today’s banquet is the last one, so once it is over you will be able to rest properly.”
She had forgotten there was still one more day to get through. The rules of the palace were truly exhausting things. Especially for a brand-new empress.
“And to think His Majesty is attending to state affairs in the middle of all this… remarkable.”
“His Majesty is famous for his strength. And for a man, being strong is the finest thing there is.”
Matilda said it in a teasing way, but the words barely reached Alexa’s ears.
She had slept soundly until eleven and was still this tired, and yet Enoch had left at the proper hour to attend to state affairs. It felt strange.
Of course there was a difference in stamina between men and women, and Enoch had grown stronger still through years of martial training, but she felt oddly embarrassed all the same. And it was not even as though the wedding night had actually taken place.
“When you return to the empress’s quarters, please sleep right away. You must not have slept well last night.”
“Mm.”
There was no right answer here. She felt vaguely as though she were lying, and on top of that, thinking of her first kiss with Enoch made her heart pound.
